I generally start with an ARF plane that I think is cool looking....and let that influence my design. Not exactly copy it usually,but make some changes. I just finished a plane last night that I did this on. I'll be posting pics tomarrow. This is the plane that inspired me.... I used different color and instead of using 3 scallops in most places,I only used 2. I think mine looks awesome and you'd never know I kinda stole the design.